Halfway to Paradise.

When you take a cruise such as this you realise how vast the oceans are. We have been sailing now for four whole days and as of yet have not spotted any other ships. In fact there have been few signs of any other life, although a fellow passenger said he had seen both a whale and a submarine. I’ve been looking from our balcony and have sighted neither.

However there are plenty of activities on board to keep you occupied during the days ranging from Zumba first thing in the morning, craft classes, destination lectures, movies and of course trivia. We have teamed up with a couple from Canada and another from Indianapolis for the morning quizzes where in addition to the daily prize a cumulative grand prize is to be awarded. After three days our team has a five point lead.
With all these activities taking place we obviously need feeding and there are plenty of choices in which to indulge.On Sunday night, the first formal night of this cruise, we dined in the Italian speciality restaurant, Sabatini’s. For a small supplement we were treated to a delicious four course meal with some very attentive service. Sylvia had the lobster for her main course while I enjoyed the Osso Bucco.

The sweets were again of high quality but many were coffee based so Sylvia choose the citrus tart.

Of course most of the food is available at no extra charge including the special deck Hawaiian buffet that was laid on at lunch time today.
Ornate carved fruit decorated the tables as the food was slowly brought out.

By the time the display was complete queues had started to form to enjoy the freshly prepared food.

After a couple of overcast cool days the sun has really come out today and everyone was out by the pool topping up their tan.They say that there will more of this tomorrow before we arrive at our first stop on Thursday.

Across the Pacific -Day One.

Since leaving Vancouver yesterday afternoon, the ship has taken on a different feel. Part of this is obviously down to the fact that the rest of the family have flown home but decorations around the ship and the entertainment package now have an Hawaiian slant. The highlight of the day was the introductory ukulele lessons from the on-board Hawaiian ambassador Tiki Dave.

Sylvia reckons that this picture makes me look like Benny Hill, I’m taking that as a compliment, but I’m not sure that it was meant as one.

Last night we competed in the ship’s version of the US TV show “Jeopardy” and although most of the teams were far bigger, we won. The prize was a couple of foam “I’m a Winner” hands which we gave away to a family sat near us. The cruise staff seeing this took pity on us and presented us with a bottle of wine, this we swopped for a couple of pens.

The Hawaiian theme continued this afternoon with Hula Dance lessons with Leialoha, Tiki Dave’s wife. We attended but due to the lack of space decided that we would give the dancing a miss.

With the family safely at home we have shared our dinner tables with several couples, mainly from Canada or the USA although there are a few Brits on board. Tonight we met Dorothy and Dave. Although now living in Vancouver, Dorothy comes from Newfoundland and Dave from Nova Scotia. Dorothy was a little eccentric (actually quite batty!!) and had an accent that was very different, a cross between an American and Eastern European. However she must have found us a little difficult to understand, as when I talked about the formal night tomorrow she thought I said “Full Moon Night”. Her husband Dave on the other hand was a fishing boat captain who ran away to sea at the age of 15 and got quite emotional when he related a tale about his late father. An interesting couple.

Our clocks go back tonight by another hour meaning that there will be a nine hour difference between us and the UK, an extra hour to wait before our next ukulele lesson.

The Last Day (For Some).

Last night was the last formal night of the cruise and gave us a chance to get some photographs of the whole family. Oliver had bought an unlimited photo package so as long as there was a Shingler in shot the photo was free.

I must express my admiration for the various photographers that we used as we tried every combination of poses available against various backdrops. Nahla particularly was somewhat photo-shy so their patience was sorely tested.

The last day of the cruise is always a sad one with farewells having to be made to newly made friends and this is particulary true for the children who seem to have made some good friends in the Kid’s clubs. Tomorrow they will make their way to the airport while we stay on the ship to start our journey to Hawaii. It’s been a great cruise and everyone has enjoyed themselves and probably over eaten!!

We now have five sea days until we reach our first port of call so I will not be posting everyday, unless there is something to report. I look forward to taking you further on our travels.

At Sea on Star Princess.

After a glorious day in San Francisco the weather took a turn for the worse as the wind picked up and the rain came down. On board a ship what this means is no-one up on deck and full lounges below. This was certainly the case this morning as the Vista Lounge was packed for the morning trivia challenge. Unfortunately we made a couple of poor guesses and missed the chance of winning a magnetic clip.

Following the sessions from songwriter Allan Rich earlier in the cruise we were treated to another presentation last night, this time by composer Charles Fox. Although his name may not be immediately recognisable many of his compositions would be. For instance he wrote the themes to many TV series include the Love Boat, Wonder Woman and prehaps most famously Happy Days. He also composed the music for many movies such as Barbarella but by far his most famous composition would be “Killing Me Softly” a major hit for both Roberta Flack and The Fugees. He entertained us with showbiz tales, playing some of his compositions on the way - a great night’s entertainment.

As a follow up this morning a question and answer session was held with the cruise director where the composer finally put to the bed the myth that “Killing Me Softly” was written about Don McClean. He related that many people thought that this was the case including Don himself but the song was written by himself and a lyricist in a couple of hours as the final song on an album.

Illustrating the variety of entertainment on board, the Q&A session gave way to a game of giant Jenga.

Tonight was the last formal night of the cruise and we all gathered early in our finery in attempt to get some official photographs taken.

The children, as always were very lively………...

…..and hopefully the professional photographers have more luck than me.

An Open-Top Bus Ride Around San Francisco.

Everybody decided to do their own thing this morning, with the Shinglers and ourselves choosing open-top bus tours (albeit different ones) and the Greenes making their own way to various San Francisco tourist spots.

What none of us realised is that today was the 111th anniversary of the Great Earthquake and fire of 1906 that destroyed most of the city. The guide on our bus related the events of that fateful day describing the fact that the quake fractured gas pipes causing fires, whilst at the same time causing the water pipes to leak, therefore there was no water to put the fires out. The final death toll was some 3,000 with about 250,000 people becoming homeless after the event. Close to Union Square in the centre of the city is a small monument where early this morning people gathered and laid a wreath in memory of those who lost their lives.

The civic centre of San Francisco resembles the Capitol building in Washington DC, but is bigger and grander in scale. Apparently federal legislation prevents any State Capitol building to be bigger than the Washington Capitol, but as San Francisco is not the capital of California they can get away with it.

The next stop on our bus tour was the headquarters of the counter culture, Haight-Ashbury and my chance to see the record store I almost found yesterday. Growing up in the Sixties with my love of West Coast music from bands such as Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and Spirit this area evokes great memories. Unfortunately the Summer of Love is but a distant memory to both me and this area, with the shops looking rather seedy. I decided not to go inside the store as I would be sorely tempted to purchase records which would be difficult to transport home.

The bus took us through the Golden Gate park and onwards to the bridge, which on an open top bus is VERY windy. After a short stop on the far side the bus made a u-turn and returned to the city. Interestingly San Francisco has something in common with Wales, in that you have to pay a toll on the bridge to enter both but it’s free to leave.
We returned to Pier 39 for a last chance to buy some souvenirs and take some more photos. Altogether the bus tour was a great way of getting to see all the best parts of the city, with a good guide to relate interesting tales.

Although the weather this morning was overcast with a hint or two of rain, as the day progressed the clouds cleared from the sky and the sun shone brighter. By the time the ship was ready to depart the sky was blue which meant the photos exiting San Francisco Bay were much better than those of the entry.

Two days at sea now before we return to Vancouver.

A Wet Afternoon in San Francisco.

Throughout the night the regular sound of the ship’s foghorn indicated that the sunshine we had experienced over the last couple of days had now been replaced by fog. As we were due to enter San Francisco Bay at around midday everyone was hoping that we might get some respite at least to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Many of the passengers gathered at the front of the ship as the we approached the bridge, cameras poised attempting to get that iconic shot. Everyone was getting very excited including Victoria and Helena.

Soon we were right under the bridge, it’s tall towers disappearing into the mist….

……and then Alcatraz was right in front of us. The mist made the prison even more threatening than it already was.

The ship seemed to take an age to dock apparently due to a combination of difficult currents and a difficulty lining up to a power supply. When did eventually berth there was only one gangway available leading to queues of frustrated passengers anxious to get off the ship and explore San Francisco. The mist had lifted by now to be relaced by a cloudy sky and occasional showers, we therefore decided that our anoraks would be necessary. What a good decision that was as now sooner had we set foot on land the showers turned to more persistent rain.

First stop on our short tour of the city by the bay was Pier 39 with it’s souvenir shops, restaurants and of course the sea lions. I had heard that attempts had been made to clear these away from the pier but they were here in all their glory.

We were treated to a particularly gruesome spectacle as one sea lion was barking so much he threw up his dinner on the platform. Immediately about twenty seagulls dived in to gorge on the regurgitated food. Sylvia captured the event on camera but I will spare you this sight instead settling for an amiable picture of a single sea lion.

The rain was by now quite heavy and while Sylvia made her way back to the ship I decided to attempt to find one of the best record shops in the USA, Ameoba Records. I started walking towards Haight-Ashbury, stopping along the way to take some photos of the trams...

….but after walking for about 45 minutes I was getting wetter and wetter so changed direction back towards the ship. This route taking me past Union Square and the entrance to China Town.

We are here for most of tomorrow so I may try again then. Tonight we are Grand Children sitting as their parents go off into the city to enjoy a meal.

Easter Sunday in Santa Barbara.

We were woken this morning at 6.30 by the sound of tenders being lowered into the water, we had arrived in Santa Barbara. Although the weather forecast said today would be cloudy with a chance of rain, we were greeted by a lovely blue sky and brilliant sunshine. There was a slight sea breeze but otherwise it was a perfect morning.

One of the benefits of cruising so much with Princess is that Sylvia and I now get priority tender boarding and so after breakfast we made our way to the lounge. Within minutes we were shown down to the next available tender and once the boat had finished loading we were on our way to shore.

A shuttle bus had been laid on to transport passengers to the town centre but as it was such a lovely morning we decided to walk along the promenade. The trees were in blossom and this combined with the orange roofed, white walled buildings gave some wonderful photo opportunities.

Many of the shops were closed and although Easter is not a public holiday in the USA it was reported on TV this morning that around 80% of the population would attend church today. There was certainly some evidence of that with many smart suited men and girls in pretty Easter dresses.

We walked back down State Street towards Stearn’s Wharf, an old wooden pier structure that houses restaurants and souvenir shops. We were amazed at the number of cars that motored down the pier to the car park at the end, it was certainly built well.

From the wharf you could view the sweeping arc of the bay with the beach in the foreground and the mountains beyond. Quite a stunning sight.

Returning to the ship we were able to catch a glimpse of the local wildlife, firstly with pelicans waiting for their dinner…...

……followed by some seals basking in the hot afternoon sunshine.

To celebrate Easter the ship had laid on a nice display of eggs in the Atrium and this evening the children were treated to an Easter egg hunt where they were all given a basket of chocolate eggs.

Tomorrow is the first of two days in one of my favourite cities, San Francisco.

Catalina Island.

This picturesque island lies some 35 Km off the coast of Los Angeles and is part of the Californian Channel Islands. The only major town on the island is Avalon which has a small harbour not large enough to accomodate a cruise ship, therefore to get ashore today a tender was necessary.
Victoria, Oliver, Poppy, Joseph , Helena and Diarra had booked a kayaking excursion which meant leaving the ship at 08.00am and Granny and Grancher looking after the two youngsters. Luckily for us it was a glorious day and after breakfast we took the children to the small splash pool.

With many of the passengers already ashore the ship was comparitively quiet which meant the children could splash and play around to their heart’s content. In the distance we could see their Mum & Dad, Aunt & Uncle and Cousins paddling away on their trip.

After playing in the pool for about an hour Aaron and Nahla decided that the next game should be shuffleboard. Generally pushing the pucks around seemed the order of the day although in this photograph it looks as if they are playing properly.

Next we moved onto the grass court area where Aaron invented his own version of croquet by lining up a series of hoops and attempting to get the ball through all of them. His use of the mallet like a golf club was equally unorthodox.

After a break for cookies and milk we returned to our cabin awaiting the return of their parents upon which we readied ourselves for the tender to the shore.
There were no queues for the tender and as we joined another couple for the journey presumed it wouldn’t take very long. Apparently there were many people already ashore and the lines to rejoin the ship were very long and therefore each tender that returned was full to the brim. For some reason they kept sending the tenders back empty while we waited, in an ever growing queue, for our opportunity to visit Avalon. Generally I am a very patient man but as we had now waited over 30 minutes I had to speak out, politely asking the officer in charge what was going on. He apologised mumbled something about refuelling but when I pointed out to him that several tenders had returned to shore empty, he apologised again. We were ashore a few minutes later!

Avalon is a small but pretty town and on this bright and sunny Saturday was full of visitors from both the ship and from LA. A walk along the marina wall gave plenty of photo opportunities.

A beautiful port of call on a beautiful day.

A Visit to an Old Queen.

The sun was shining brightly as we slowly docked at San Pedro pier in the midst of Los Angeles port, our first stop on this cruise.

We had all planned to do different things today. Victoria and her family had booked a ship’s excursion to see the main sights of the city and Helena wanted to take her children to the beach. Sylvia and I however had decided on a visit to the old liner Queen Mary, but first we had to clear US Customs and Immigration!!

The process appeared very easy, passengers would make their way to the Vista Lounge at the rear of the ship at designated times from where they would be guided to the immigration officials and onward to the USA. Passengers going on trips were to gather in a separate lounge and presumably “fast-tracked” through the system to get them to their waiting coaches. We made our way to the lounge at our designated time but due to the number of waiting passengers joined a queue that stretched almost the half the length of the ship and was growing by the minute. After about half an hour wait we made it to the lounge, ten minutes later we left the ship to join the real queue for immigration. This line slowly inched forward and before long we could see the immigration officers processing the 2500 passengers from the ship. Incidentally just in front of us were Victoria and her family, so much for the fast-track!

I’m happy to say that the rest of the process passed without incident. Sylvia’s fingerprints worked perfectly on the Californian machines, which according to the very nice border officer are far better maintained than those in Florida.

Having successfully entered the USA we made our separate ways to our chosen destinations. We last visited the Queen Mary in our 25th wedding anniversary year some nineteen years ago and before we had ever set foot on a cruise ship. I’ve got to say that I was a little disappointed at how the ship now looked, the years have not been kind to her and she needs some TLC. My view is that if some work is not done on her soon she will cease to be a tourist attraction. The Princess Diana exhibition was not open today and the most interesting part were the models of the various trans-Atlantic liners. Many of these featured cutaway sections showing the different cabins and public rooms. Nearby was the Worlds longest Lego model ship, a scale model of the Queen Mary containing some 250,000 bricks.

From Long Beach, Sylvia and I made the short trip back to San Pedro to visit a very colourful farmer’s market. Small stalls offered a mixture of fruits and vegetables, some that looked very exotic and all grown in the local area.

Returning to the ship we had time to fit in a nice game of table tennis before spending a couple of hours sitting in the warm Californian sunshine.

The rest of the family had a good time with their activities with Aaron playing in the sea with his little sister…...

…..before chilling in the sunshine with his Dad.

Poppy will update you with her adventures in her blog (www.poppy.shingler.co.uk).